Parking
Start at Dales Picnic Area, the named access for the walk. Public toilets and barbecue facilities are in the picnic area; national park entry fees apply.
Overview
About Gorge Rim Walk
Why go
- Gorge views without committing to the longer floor route
- White markers and a straightforward return walk
Heads up
- Slopes and steps make this moderate despite its short distance
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Karijini map
Full mapElevation642–665 m
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Karijini Tour Guide
Your drive to Gorge Rim Walk, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Karijini National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Karijini audio tourRecorded for this trailhead
Circular Pool Lookout and Dales Picnic Area0:00 / 0:30
“You’re approaching Circular Pool Lookout and Dales Picnic Area, a good stop for seeing Dales Gorge from above.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Karijini Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Fortescue Falls and Fern Pool
- Dales Campground: A Base for the Eastern Gorges
- The Bee That Shakes a Flower
- Which Way the Water Moved
- 141 audio storiesacross Karijini’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Dingo, Rock Wallaby, Mulga Snake, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 22 trails, 30 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Gorge Rim Walk
Take the rim routeGorge Rim Walk is a 2.
Gorge Rim Walk is a 2.4 km return walk from Dales Picnic Area to Fortescue Falls Lookout and back, with several views into Dales Gorge. It passes Circular Pool Lookout but stays on the rim, making it the shorter choice if you want the gorge scenery without going down to the gorge floor. Allow about 1–2 hours, with extra time if you stop at the viewpoints.
What the track is likeWhite trail markers lead from the picnic area along a gently winding track.
White trail markers lead from the picnic area along a gently winding track. Snappy gums cluster near the start; closer to the cliff, native cypress provides patches of shade. The route has gentle slopes and some sections of steps. It reaches several natural viewpoints before Fortescue Falls Lookout, then returns along the same rim track. Stay back from the gorge edge and use the established viewpoints for the views across the layered walls.
Ancient layers, younger gorgeThe iron-rich and silica bands in Karijini's rocks formed under an ancient sea roughly 2.5–2.
The iron-rich and silica bands in Karijini's rocks formed under an ancient sea roughly 2.5–2.0 billion years ago. Oxygen released by early photosynthetic organisms reacted with dissolved iron, producing the repeated layers now visible in the gorge walls. The gorge itself is much younger: uplift raised the Hamersley Plateau, and flowing water cut into the hard rock over millions of years. This walk is on Banyjima, Yinhawangka and Kurrama Country.
Before setting outDales Picnic Area is the named start, with public toilets and barbecue facilities in the picnic…
Dales Picnic Area is the named start, with public toilets and barbecue facilities in the picnic area; national park entry fees apply. Carry your own water and snacks. Pets are not permitted in the national park.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Karijini
44 sightingsDingoMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
18 sightingsRock WallabyMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
15 sightingsMulga SnakeMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
36 sightingsHamersley Rock MonitorMost seen around 9 AMSighting map
13 sightingsWestern BowerbirdMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
34 sightingsChildren's PythonMost seen around 8 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Karijini. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
